From Cautious To Courageous - Week 1 - Damon Moore - February 15, 2026

Come on City Place church.

Isn't that awesome, man? Listen, we now get together, just so you know.

I'll see you back here next Sunday, but we get to gather throughout the week, 24 hours in a day.

Really allow for some ministry to begin to take place.

It also allows us to be able to steward a facility before we move into our permanent, and so the prayers and seeking the Lord and those of you who gave during seeds offering, you get to see the faithfulness of your finances at work in a short amount of time.

Just so y'all know, we don't have a meter up here.

Like we gave in December and God showed up in January, and so the faithfulness of God is real.

And so over the next couple of weeks, here's what would be great.

If you are an electrician, a plumber, you can cut at an angle.

If you are an interior decorator, let us know that same card where it says praise report.

Right there because that will be appraised before for the church.

And so we've, we, we've had some, some, some, uh, some, some men in the house go and start the work.

You saw the raw, but there's also an updated work that the, uh, actual landlord that they're doing and everything like that.

And so stay faithful in your serving and your giving, because as you know, when you step out in faith, there's an increase in something else.

But we have a building team that's been working faithfully, not just on that, but also for where we're going for our permanent location.

So City Place is going to be moving this year.

I mean, like, we're gonna take steps, we're gonna be taking steps.

I didn't drop two announcements in one thing, but if the Lord does do it, we will be moving.

Meaning? Meaning we're gonna be taking ground.

We we're gonna be taking ground.

And, uh, it's just, it's a good season to be a part of the church of Jesus.

Sean mentioned it earlier.

That, uh, Southeastern University, that the students, because of their worship, caused the classes to be canceled.

I think it was 72 hours the last time I had talked.

Or I, I read it and, and if you're on the outside, you could go, oh, just a bunch of stuff.

Or you can look at it and go, the students are leading the way.

So, so, so when, so, so if we ever feel compelled to point at high schoolers.

Or college students and have something negative to say.

We shouldn't say it anymore because articles are being written about them.

I, I was on, uh, I was on social and, and, uh, they said that UCF had a powerful worship night.

UCF, uh, we are making room for our next generation and so get ready.

When the young adults are preaching to us and the teenagers are holding the microphone here in this next season, don't go, where's pd? No, we're gonna make room because they're gonna push us further faster.

Amen.

And I'm, I'm only 26 so that I, I I get, it's been a long time since I lied about my age.

If this is your first time here, you, just so you know, I, I don't lie, but I lie about my age, but I'm, I'm not a liar.

Okay.

I just want you to know that I am not a liar this week.

I'll be 26 next week, 32, but just know that this is not my normal.

All right, let's go.

If you have your Bibles, go with me to Joshua.

Joshua, welcome to City Place Church.

We like to laugh.

We like to laugh.

Thank you for leaning into worship.

Last Sunday.

How many of y'all came to Super Bowl Sunday? Did you have a good time? Yeah, man, we had tons of fun.

Just shout out to the special events, first impressions, parking lot, worship kids, student ministry, create team.

Man, it was a fun day in God's house and uh, I'm excited about the next series that we're gonna be in.

Uh, I'm not gonna give the title just yet, but.

We're gonna start our preparation to our 10 year celebration today.

10 years is a big milestone.

Um, what you may or may not know is that um, there is an estimated, uh, 3000 plus churches that could potentially close every year.

And being a church planter, we were church Plant 500, I think in 67 of Ark Association of Related Churches.

That's one of the places where we give from the tithe and offering that you give, we help plant more churches.

Uh, in fact, we sewed this week we sewed into a church plant in Europe.

London this week, city place.

Uh, you help, you're helping them with some of the things that they have need of.

And so one of the things that we learned being church planters is that if you will just remain faithful during the seed sowing years, you'll also see the harvest during the harvest season.

And so God has been faithful over the 10 years because there was a pandemic that shut everything down.

We were online for quite a while and when we started gathering back together, I think I could be wrong, Naren, you can tell me.

I think our first gathering had like 18 people.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Right? So God has been faithful, but he did something in that season where he shifted our focus as a church to, I used to preach to the seat beside you that was empty.

Just waiting for them to come and during the pandemic, the Lord go, the Lord really corrected us and like, why don't you just preach to the person that's there? Right? And so we just said, we just gonna grow in discipleship and we were gonna be passionate about the presence of the Lord.

And so I encourage you to jump into what God is doing and building a life-giving community here.

At City Place Church.

In fact, take the three week challenge that you heard talked about.

I promise you God will do something and there's a gift on the inside of you that someone needs and an encouragement.

Joshua chapter one, Joshua chapter one.

We gonna, I'm gonna read, just so you know, if I finish today, that's a bonus for you.

But, but I'm, I'm gonna start this series and, and, and I want you to hear what I'm about to tell you.

I don't have an end point yet.

Okay.

I don't have an end point to the series yet because I feel like with the Lord may start, it could turn into like a snowball effect and uh, I want him to do that.

I want him to do that.

Here's a question that I want to ask you and and, and I'm gonna ask it again after I read the verses, but I want you to think about this as I read.

Okay.

What would you do if you knew you wouldn't and couldn't fail? Okay.

What would you do? If you knew you would not and you could not fail.

You got that question? Yeah.

Joshua chapter one, here we go.

I'm gonna read 11 verses and then we'll, we'll break it down.

Let's pray.

Father, in Jesus name, I pray that what you put in inside of me for city place will come out with clarity, precision, and power.

I pray Holy Spirit, that our hearts would be stirred this morning for what you wanna say.

We're coming around your scriptures and your word says that your word is alive and active and well.

So God, I pray that we will hear your voice so clear that we will know that you've spoken to us today.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

Receive all the glory.

And all the honor and all the praise as we jump into your word.

Amen.

It says this in verse one.

After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none, and said, Moses, uh, Moses' servant saying, Moses, my servant is dead.

Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land, which I am giving to them.

The children of Israel, every place that the soul of your feet will tread upon.

I've given you, as I said to Moses from the wilderness in this Lebanon.

As far as the Great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Verse six, be strong and of good courage for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance to land, which I swore to their fathers to give them only be strong and very courageous.

You may observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you, do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go.

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then.

You will have good success.

Verse nine, have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid nor be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you.

Wherever you go, verse 10, and then let's wrap this thing up.

Then Joshua commanded the officer of the people saying, pass through the camp and command the people saying, prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days you'll cross over this Jordan to go into possess the land with the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

So I asked you this question yet again.

What would you do if you knew you would not, and you could not fail? Talk back now.

Somebody talk back.

Joshua chapter one, God is having this dialogue with Joshua and Joshua's life has been filled with a powerful promise from God.

But what this story is not letting us see is that Joshua.

Has been waiting 40 additional years for God's promise to be fulfilled in his life, the promise of God that Joshua and the people of Israel are about to walk into.

Didn't begin with Joshua.

It started with a man named Abraham In Genesis, chapter 12, God tells Abraham, I'm gonna bless you and you and, and, and your inheritance is gonna be so great and so numerous.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Genesis 15, look into the sky.

So shall your descendants be, look out into the land.

You can't even count the sand on the shore.

So shall your descendants be.

Abraham has, has a child who births a child, who births a child, and then the Bible says that Joseph is born.

I'm skipping.

Y'all gotta read Genesis.

Just so you know, Joseph is born, he's.

A great grandkid of Abraham and the Bible says that Joseph raises rises to prominence in Egypt and he moves his whole family and God has given the people great favor and he says that Joseph dies.

And when Joseph dies, the Pharaoh that Rose didn't know him, and he put the people of Israel in bondage, and that began a 400 year wait.

To go to the promise that they were supposed to grab hold of sooner rather than later.

For 400 years, the people of Israel have been crying out to God.

We got your promise, but we also have this pain.

We know what you promised, but it seems like every single day is a moment of pain.

And the Bible says that they cry out year after year after year, and God raises up a guy by the name of Moses.

You ever heard of Moses? Finish this statement.

Let my people, right.

So, so, so God raises up Moses and Moses steps in front of Pharaoh and Pharaoh won't let him go.

And so God says, I'm gonna show Pharaoh and the people of Egypt my mighty hand.

And what's gonna happen is, is I'm gonna deliver my people better from their deliverance than how they were living while they were in it.

Plague got plague.

Plague got the plague.

Pharaoh won't let him go.

Finally, God says, I'm gonna take away the firstborn, and the pharaoh's gonna let you go.

Pharaoh goes, go get outta here.

Take, take, take your stuff.

And God goes before you leave, tell 'em you want their stuff too.

So they leave, watch.

Now they leave with.

The stuff of Egypt, they got closed, they got cattle, they got stuff they left with more than what they were fighting for while they were in it.

And while they started to leave, Pharaoh comes to a senses like they can't leave, starts to chase him.

And then all of the miracles starts happening.

The red seed starts to open up Fire cloud, manna from heaven, speak to a rock, hit the.

Miracle signs and wonders.

The people are starting to move towards their promise, but then they run into a situation along the way.

They start complaining.

Yeah.

They start complaining and during their complaint they get stuck.

And over the next few weeks we're gonna be taking a journey because as we go back to Joshua chapter one.

God begins to echo something to Joshua because Joshua was a part of the walking around the same wall or same wilderness for 40 years, and he starts to say this.

I just want you to know Moses is dead.

One season is now over.

A new season is beginning.

In our life, God wants us to know that one season will end and he will begin a new season, and he begins to literally define for Joshua what Joshua and the people will have.

You'll have this territory and it will go from here to there, and it'll go from here to the sun going down.

This will be yours.

Like, can I tell you that God has something specific for you? If you like me, sometimes I ask for stuff.

That doesn't belong to me because I don't spend some time going, God, is this what you have for me? Have you ever been there? Yeah.

And so God says, Hey, this is what I have for you.

And then he says, I just want you to know nobody will be able to step to you as long as you live.

I don't know about y'all.

That's exciting because I had some people try to step to me back in the day.

They learned the hard way.

You know what I'm saying? I just plan.

That's not, forget about the past.

Forget about the past.

No, but think about it.

Think about God tells you one season has changed.

I have something fresh for you.

This is what I have for you.

And as you go get it.

Nobody can step to you.

And if they try, I want you to know I'm right beside you.

Then he says, watch, it's not even situational.

It's from today until the rest of your life.

I, I, I want us to, the reason why I'm over emphasizing this is because when we read it, it sounds good for them.

These are spiritual giants.

But if he's the same yesterday and today and tomorrow, then wouldn't that also be for you? So he speaks and he says, Hey, listen, I will be with you.

And then he starts talking to Joshua.

He tells him what he's gonna do, and then he goes, your part.

Be strong and courageous.

Be bold.

Step into the situation, not fearful.

Be ready.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or be dismayed or discouraged.

And he repeats it again for the Lord, your God is with you.

Wherever you go.

Verse seven, he says, be strong.

And then he repeats it again and very courageous.

And then he goes again.

He says, now listen, uh, stay in the word.

This book of the law will not depart from your mouth.

If you do that wherever you go, you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success.

How many of y'all wanna be successful? How many of y'all wanna be prosperous? But how often do we go it alone? How often do we go without the word? So he says, Hey, stay in the word and then you'll make your way prosperous.

And then we get to verse nine and he repeats it again.

But this time he's letting him know it is not an option.

Have I not commanded you? Just in case you think courage and strength and being fearless is an option, this is now an instruction.

Be strong and courageous.

You walk with your head up and fearless and let people see it and you'll know that I'm with you and I will never leave you or forsake you.

City Place Church 2026.

Can I give you the focus for 2026? City place.

As a church, we are moving from being cautious to courageous, from cautious to courageous.

We are gonna take steps to take new territory that God's already promised us.

There have been prophetic promises from 20 20 12, 20 20 12.

Sound like I was mixing a rap tape, didn't it? 20 20, 20 12.

Like, listen, it did sound like that.

I'm sorry.

The Lord's still working on me.

Gave me a sense of humor, like there have been prophetic promises from 2012 and continued words that God have spoken.

Over City Place Church every single year of our existence.

Can I be honest as a pastor, some I've waited for the perfect opportunity.

No more.

We have a green light to go and get an office space.

Y'all see that? See what I just did? There we have a green light.

There are some things that God has spoken to you that you put on the shelf.

You looked at your clock and be like, God, when? When is gonna happen? And God's like, tell me.

Come on, let's go.

You have my promise.

You have my power.

I told you no one will be able to step to you.

I will be with you.

Let's go.

He echoes.

One season ends.

One season begins 2026.

This is the year where we move from being cautious to courageous.

Look, here's what I love, Joshua.

Gets the instruction and he doesn't pray about it.

After he talks to God, he doesn't go, God confirmed what you just said, Lord, I'm gonna take this time and I'm just gonna seek you again after you just spoke to me the way you spoke to Moses.

God, I'm gonna write this in my journal.

I'm gonna let this thing play out.

No, it says he went to the people, he said, Hey, everybody get ready because we gonna go get it.

And we got, y'all got three days to prepare.

He said, I know what the Lord tolds us, but for you all, I'm not gonna shock the system.

You have three days to prepare, three days to prepare.

Get all your stuff ready.

Don't wait.

Don't wait till the last day to pack the last box.

Don't wait till the last day to tell people that you moving.

Don't wait till the last day to throw away the trash.

Do all that now because in three days we are going.

We've waited for so long to see what God has said.

We ain't waiting no more.

Have you ever been there? You've waited for so long and you like when I'm telling you it's now we are moving from cautious.

I feel like preaching, but I ain't gotta be three organ.

You got like a.

Okay then.

All right.

Okay.

I was joking.

I was joking, but I will tune up if I need to look at the person beside you.

Say ha.

Okay.

Okay.

If you're a first time here, I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

Okay.

Listen, listen.

Listen, if we're going to go forward, we have to look at God's faithfulness.

Then we also have to look at some things that may have gotten us stuck and we've gotta learn from the thing that may have gotten us stuck, lest we repeat it again.

So we're going to move from cautious to courageous.

But before we take that initial step, I wanna take us back to why God would say Moses is dead.

Rise and go.

Can we do that? Numbers Chapter 13? Numbers Chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention Numbers 13 · chapter mention

Oh, you giving me the like the soft music? That's like the wrap up, man.

Right? Hold on, hold on.

Like, gimme like five more minutes before you start playing the slow stuff.

Yeah.

All right.

Because when you get that right, you be like, oh, you're right.

Pd.

The Lord is at this plate, but I'm so passionate and it may not match the mood.

I'm gonna lie.

You know what I'm saying? Numbers chapter 13, watch this.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

Numbers Chapter 13, remember Joshua has been, has been with Moses, and in numbers chapter 13, they are ready to go and get the promise.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention Numbers 13 · chapter mention

And so Moses says, Hey, I need one from every tribe.

To go watch now and spy out what God told them that they had going way back to Abraham.

Imagine I told y'all I got a piece of property for y'all and you waited generation after generation, and I pull up where it is.

I show you the picture.

I showed you that I got the deed in my hand.

Imagine that as we read.

Numbers.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

Chapter 13, verse one says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, send men out to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am given to the children of Israel.

From each tribe to their fathers.

You shall send a man one from every tribe.

So God is literally saying, Hey, let everybody know it's go time.

They already know that the land is theirs.

Now it's ready.

Let, alright, let's move.

Jump down to verse 16.

It says, these are the names.

Of the men whom Moses sent a spy out, and Moses called Yeshua, the son of none, who is Joshua.

Then Moses sent them the spy out the land of Canaan and said, go up this way to the south.

Go up to the mountains and see what the land is like.

Whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land is good or bad, whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds.

Whether the land is rich or poor, whether they're forest or not.

Watch now, he says, and be of good courage.

Y'all see that? Yeah.

Be of good courage.

It's a theme.

It's running and bring some of the fruit of the land.

Now the time of season is ripe for the first ripe of grapes.

Verse 26, skip down.

Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron.

And all the congregation of the children of Israel at Perran and Kadesh, and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation watch now, and they showed them the fruit of the land.

Y'all what I didn't read here, everybody look up at me real quick, is that the Bible says that when they got to the land, they all looked 12 and was like, this is all that God said.

It says the land really does flow with milk and honey.

And the grapes are so big.

The Bible says that they needed two people to carry one cluster.

How many of y'all need extra help when you get your grapes from Publix? Excuse me, sir? Yes.

Yes.

I know you normally carry them out to the car, but would you mind grabbing them from the produce section for me please? Like the Bible says that, that they were so big that they needed two people.

So imagine you come back and you like.

Real.

We can see that.

But watch what happens.

It says in verse 27, man, we went through the land.

It truly flows with milk and honey and its fruits.

Never.

Nevertheless, the people who dwell on there are strong.

The cities are fortified, very large.

The am uh, the Amalekites dwell in the land, the hit heights, the Jebusites, and then go down to verse 30 because they started getting negative.

They started focusing on the obstacle rather than the fruit.

They, they, they started focusing on the fact that, yeah, there are some people there, they look kind of strong, but these jokers brought back the fruit.

They highlighted more about the obstacle than they did the fruit.

They could have been like, yo, to a, that's where you and your whole family.

But instead they dropped the fruit on the ground and was like, yes.

So let me tell you what, um, there is somebody who's more qualified for the job.

Yep.

And so since they're more qualified, you know what, I'm not even gonna apply.

Like, because it says here that in verse 30 that they started complaining and Joshua, uh, uh, Caleb quieted.

The people said, let us go up at once, take possession for, we will overcome it.

But the men who had gone up said to him, we're not able to go up against these people for, they're stronger than us.

And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land.

Which they had spied out.

Huh? You brought back the grapes.

You told us that it has a jacuzzi.

You told us dad, and then you tell us, you know what? The land is not as good as what we told you it was.

So they spied out the land and then they said, uh, those that live in it, they devour its inhabitants.

All the people there that we saw, there are great statues.

Look at verse 33.

Then we saw the giants and we were like grasshoppers in our own site, and so we were in theirs.

I thought y'all were spying out the land.

Did you go, yo, big fella, how we appear to you? Could you have entered with that mentality while you were searching the land? So here's a question as we get ready to wrap up music.

Please watch this.

What wouldn't you do even though you knew you would not fail? If you were the people of Israel, if, if, if we had the heart of the people of Israel in Moses' Day, what wouldn't we do if we knew we wouldn't and couldn't fail? Can I tell you what we wouldn't do? We would never advance ants.

We would never advance.

If we, if we let one season define the rest of our life, we would never advance.

In chapter 14, it says that the people started spreading the.

All the rumors of what the land was like amongst the people, so much so to where all of the people of Israel started cheering.

We can't go.

We won't go.

We should go back to Egypt.

In fact, kick Moses out of the way and let's elect a new one.

Really, we have a promise from God.

We can see the fruit.

And because of how these jokers see themselves, I'm supposed to feel like how they feel.

Well, since they feel that way, I'm not gonna move either then.

And the Bible says that two people did.

They were ready to go, Caleb and Joshua, what wouldn't we do? Even though we knew we wouldn't and we couldn't fail, we wouldn't advance.

Over the next few weeks we're gonna talk about moving from cautious to courageous.

We're gonna talk about what God wants to do.

In fact, next week, 'cause it's baptism time.

Next week we're gonna talk about some of the pitfalls, the pitfalls of being cautious.

Can I, can I just give you one? Because I know your blanks are screaming.

Feel me in.

Feel me in.

Feel me in.

Please.

Why you keep leaving me by myself.

Listen, when we become cautious, it will turn into, write this down, complacency.

It will turn into complacency.

They're cautious behavior turned into complacency.

This is the same group of people that we're seeing the miracle signs and wonders of God, but they became comfortable.

Well, let's see what he'll do tomorrow.

'cause he's going to do something.

We are the people of God.

He's going to do something because we are his own.

Like if we're not careful, our cautiousness will become complacent.

But here's the thing, y'all, we can combat.

It says this in Hebrews chapter 11, verse one.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Now, faith is a substance of things hoped for.

It's the evidence of things not seen.

What we don't want to do is we don't want our cautious behavior to impede God's promises that He guarantees for your life.

Amen.

So is it okay if I stop there? But here's the thing.

We are going to journey from being cautious to courageous because when you get back to Joshua chapter one, Joshua's like, we ain't waiting.

Let's go now.

It's gonna be a good series.

It's gonna be a good series.

Amen.

Can I pray? Father, in Jesus name, thank you for your word.

Thank you for who you are.

Thank you for those that said yes to you.

Thank you that in this moment and in this time, God.

We get to celebrate who you are in our life.

God, we commit to being strong and being courageous.

God, we, we we're asking for your help though.

We're asking for your help because we need you to continue to echo your promise back to us.

Confirm that you will never leave us or forsake us, can repeat your promises from a season of our life before.

We lay down our cautious activity and we're positioned to step forward into what you have for us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen, and amen.